Blizzard revoked Diablo immortal purchases made on 3'rd party sites

Lakados

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So seeking ways to spend less wannabe whales took to 3'rd party sites that were selling in-game currency for significantly less than the official blizzard ones.
How the 3'rd party was getting ahold of said currency is up to debate, ranging from hacking, to stolen credit cards, to simply buying them in developing countries where they are less and transferring them to the US and other more expensive markets.
Either way when Blizzard caught on they deducted the costs of the ill-gotten orbs from player accounts leaving many of those players with extremely negative balances.
Since matchmaking is done based on the number of Orbs spent, players in the extreme negatives are unable to play anything ranked because they cant match with anybody, which to clear off would mean they need to spend 10's even 100's of thousands of USD in the store.
Needless to say, they are just quitting the game instead.

https://www.thegamer.com/blizzard-revokes-third-party-diablo-immortal-orb-purchases/
 
So seeking ways to spend less wannabe whales took to 3'rd party sites that were selling in-game currency for significantly less than the official blizzard ones.
How the 3'rd party was getting ahold of said currency is up to debate, ranging from hacking, to stolen credit cards, to simply buying them in developing countries where they are less and transferring them to the US and other more expensive markets.
Either way when Blizzard caught on they deducted the costs of the ill-gotten orbs from player accounts leaving many of those players with extremely negative balances.
Since matchmaking is done based on the number of Orbs spent, players in the extreme negatives are unable to play anything ranked because they cant match with anybody, which to clear off would mean they need to spend 10's even 100's of thousands of USD in the store.
Needless to say, they are just quitting the game instead.

https://www.thegamer.com/blizzard-revokes-third-party-diablo-immortal-orb-purchases/

I mean, I think spending real world currency on in game shit is profoundly stupid in general, but that said, they tried to beat the system and they paid the consequences. I don't have a problem with that.

This should be the way it is in all levels of society. Either dot every I and cross every T, or get pummeled. You try to look for loop holes or workarounds? You get pummeled.

I'd kind of like that.
 
Garbage game proves to be garbage?

The fact that it's even possible to spend $100k on a MOBILE GAME (and still not have everything and I do mean everything) already shows how terrible a rip-off these gamble mechanics are. Paying $60 for a game isn't good enough, we need $100k+ gamble whales! And kids just keep eating it up.
Gamble mechanics really should be made illegal.
 
I mean, I think spending real world currency on in game shit is profoundly stupid in general, but that said, they tried to beat the system and they paid the consequences. I don't have a problem with that.

This should be the way it is in all levels of society. Either dot every I and cross every T, or get pummeled. You try to look for loop holes or workarounds? You get pummeled.

I'd kind of like that.
I agree. It's funny I just find it also funny how Blizzard chose to deal with it. Not rolling back the characters and their purchases which they could obviously track but instead just saddle them with shitloads of debt.
 
When did "3rd" become "3'rd"
This should be the way it is in all levels of society. Either dot every I and cross every T, or get pummeled.
So if I buy a giftcard in the forum, here, and it turns out the company the card is for doesn't like it, I should have the entire value of the card subtracted from my bank account? I don't think that makes any sense.

Not a fan of NFTs but this attitude has implications you might not be aware of.
 
When did "3rd" become "3'rd"

So if I buy a giftcard in the forum, here, and it turns out the company the card is for doesn't like it, I should have the entire value of the card subtracted from my bank account? I don't think that makes any sense.

Not a fan of NFTs but this attitude has implications you might not be aware of.
Gift cards don't quite track here, Giftcards have a set value regardless of the country they are claimed in.
I mean if somebody here in the forum is selling a fully loaded $50 USD gift card for $5 USD, that doesn't sound sketchy to you?
 
Giftcards have a set value
Let's say I got a giftcard for a bad GPU at the start of 2020, but I didn't start shopping for a new GPU for a few months. Whatever the card I got credit for wouldn't be available at that price anymore.

Or, let's say I bought a GPU at the peak of the idiocy and then it went bad just a few weeks ago. I might have a giftcard with way more value than the videocard. That literally happened to a user here.

$50 USD gift card for $5 USD, that doesn't sound sketchy to you?
The article simply states that sometimes the discounts were that extreme. The discounts for giftcards offered in this forum aren't that extreme, but they are significant.
 
Eternal Orbs are Diablo Immortal's premium currency. You can purchase Orbs directly from the in-game store for anywhere from $0.99 USD for 60 to $99.99 for 7,200. Orbs can be exchanged for cosmetics (which will run you between 1,000 to 1,650, depending on the cosmetic), Reforge Stones to re-roll your equipment, or Legendary Crests for a chance at getting Legendary Gems from Elder Rifts. That last one will cost you 160 Orbs and is the main way players improve their character's power.

I knew the game's monetization was toxic before, but $2 per attempt(?) at upgrading your power is worse than I'd imagined.
 
I mean, I think spending real world currency on in game shit is profoundly stupid in general,
I agree with that.
but that said, they tried to beat the system and they paid the consequences.
But not with this. They didn't do anything illegal, the same logic could be applied to 3rd party game key sellers. You buy a game in good faith, and the publisher decides no you, can't buy it from them?
If those credits were obtained through illegal activities, then go after the vendor, but in my opinion in that case the buyers are victims too. Punishing them is scummy and more about sending the message of buy from us or else! It's mafia tactics. You can't buy your goods from the vendor next door because he is not in our protection racket.
This should be the way it is in all levels of society. Either dot every I and cross every T, or get pummeled. You try to look for loop holes or workarounds? You get pummeled.
Looking for cheaper alternatives is not cheating the system. Vendors try to hide hidden costs all the time into purchases. I've just had it happen to me that I ordered a fridge and it said "free delivery" but only after purchase was it revealed that the free part only applies to delivery until your front gate. And if you want it delivered to it's intended location you need to pay extra, which extra is much more than other vendors charge who don't advertise "free delivery"

It's all a racket, and giving them the short stick occasionally is joyous. They somehow screw you over on every one of your purchases even when you don't know it, so I revel in the opportunity to screw them whenever possible.
 
I agree with that.

But not with this. They didn't do anything illegal, the same logic could be applied to 3rd party game key sellers. You buy a game in good faith, and the publisher decides no you, can't buy it from them?
If those credits were obtained through illegal activities, then go after the vendor, but in my opinion in that case the buyers are victims too. Punishing them is scummy and more about sending the message of buy from us or else! It's mafia tactics. You can't buy your goods from the vendor next door because he is not in our protection racket.

Looking for cheaper alternatives is not cheating the system. Vendors try to hide hidden costs all the time into purchases. I've just had it happen to me that I ordered a fridge and it said "free delivery" but only after purchase was it revealed that the free part only applies to delivery until your front gate. And if you want it delivered to it's intended location you need to pay extra, which extra is much more than other vendors charge who don't advertise "free delivery"

It's all a racket, and giving them the short stick occasionally is joyous. They somehow screw you over on every one of your purchases even when you don't know it, so I revel in the opportunity to screw them whenever possible.
Lets be honest here the players likely knew this was some shady crap but they did it anyway. They got what they deserved for taking that risk.
 
Lets be honest here the players likely knew this was some shady crap but they did it anyway
So now we just assume guilt without evidence?

The stronger argument would be to see if the game has a rule about 3rd party currency vendors. I assume they do, much like every other online game I've seen.

If so, then that's a much better route to go showing they broke policy. Not "they probably knew it was shady".
 
So now we just assume guilt without evidence?

The stronger argument would be to see if the game has a rule about 3rd party currency vendors. I assume they do, much like every other online game I've seen.

If so, then that's a much better route to go showing they broke policy. Not "they probably knew it was shady".
Dude you're buying crap off of some 3rd party site for a blizz game, they didn't allow that back in D3 why would they suddenly allow it now? I'm not giving these people the benefit of the doubt anymore.
 
Dude you're buying crap off of some 3rd party site for a blizz game, they didn't allow that back in D3 why would they suddenly allow it now? I'm not giving these people the benefit of the doubt anymore.
I...agree with you? It's most likely a policy violation regardless if they knew it was shady or not.
 
So now we just assume guilt without evidence?

The stronger argument would be to see if the game has a rule about 3rd party currency vendors. I assume they do, much like every other online game I've seen.

If so, then that's a much better route to go showing they broke policy. Not "they probably knew it was shady".
This is the equivalent of gold farming in a MMORPG.
 
When did "3rd" become "3'rd"

So if I buy a giftcard in the forum, here, and it turns out the company the card is for doesn't like it, I should have the entire value of the card subtracted from my bank account? I don't think that makes any sense.

Not a fan of NFTs but this attitude has implications you might not be aware of.
A better analogy is if you pay someone to change your atm card so that it allows you to buy whatever you want as if the funds were available and you did exactly that when the bank finally finds out the bank ends up deducting how ever much you really spent
 
Let's say I got a giftcard for a bad GPU at the start of 2020, but I didn't start shopping for a new GPU for a few months. Whatever the card I got credit for wouldn't be available at that price anymore.

Or, let's say I bought a GPU at the peak of the idiocy and then it went bad just a few weeks ago. I might have a giftcard with way more value than the videocard. That literally happened to a user here.
Your confusing some things here, one is the difference between a gift card and a voucher. And the other is how a warranty return is processed.
 
I know this games business model is outrageous.

But seriously are we cheering gold sellers now ? ? ? Buy from gold sellers don't complain when you have your account deleted... which is what this is a deletion. They are actually being nice giving people the option to buy back in. In most online games when you are caught messing with gold sellers you just get the horns. Its long known for people playing online games selling gold will get you booted... buying gold will also get you booted in most cases. The best way to take care of gold selling as a developer is to BOOT everyone so other players understand its not worth saving a few bucks sending money to some Chinese gold farm.

The only real reaction gamers should be having to this game is to /uninstall and play something else. The greed level is well documented no one has any excuse for supporting such crap, buying things properly OR feeding creep gold sellers. Just don't play such obviously scammy games... play the less obvious scammy online games. lmao
 
I really enjoyed the game without spending a dime. The hours I put in are worth any stand alone price if they offered it that way.

That being said you hit a wall after obtaining paragon level status from the 60th level on. There is no grinding/loot drops, which allows you to go to higher Hell levels at a certain point. Maybe if you grind for 10K+ hours you can upgrade slowly. You have to pay real money to proceed any higher. This isn't only a P2W game, it literally punishes you for not paying. That is fucking low....I mean scummish low.
 
I really enjoyed the game without spending a dime. The hours I put in are worth any stand alone price if they offered it that way.

That being said you hit a wall after obtaining paragon level status from the 60th level on. There is no grinding/loot drops, which allows you to go to higher Hell levels at a certain point. Maybe if you grind for 10K+ hours you can upgrade slowly. You have to pay real money to proceed any higher. This isn't only a P2W game, it literally punishes you for not paying. That is fucking low....I mean scummish low.
I hope Microsoft burns their existing models to the ground and doesn't continue this BS P2W model going forward. I also hope the government steps in and regulates this form of gambling sooner than later because this is gambling.
 
They are actually being nice giving people the option to buy back in.
Getting premabanned would have been the nicest thing they could have done for these poor fucks. But this is a money grab. They know some people are actually going to buy their way out, so let's not call it "nice" because we know that's not what it is.
 
So now we just assume guilt without evidence?

The stronger argument would be to see if the game has a rule about 3rd party currency vendors. I assume they do, much like every other online game I've seen.

If so, then that's a much better route to go showing they broke policy. Not "they probably knew it was shady".

It doesn't seem like the assumed anything. From the article:

Unfortunately, it turns out that these third-party websites were likely breaking Blizzard's terms of service, either by offering these discounts thanks to stolen credit cards, gift cards, or by taking advantage of regional price differences.

So they know the dealers that were selling these were breaking the rules or, in some cases, up to illegal activity in order to obtain the items.

Blizzard's response:

When Blizzard banned all these third-party purchases, it deducted these ill-gotten Orbs from player accounts, leaving them with negative balances. Players with negative balances can't join parties or participate in group activities such as Elder Rifts or dungeons. But buying their way out of debt legitimately can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

So they didn't "ban" the players, they deducted balances that were deemed to be black or grey market based on the sources they were purchased from. Players who still want to play their crappy, microtransaction-infected mobile title can still do so by buying their accounts out legitimately. That's actually a completely reasonable response by Blizzard, especially considering what these players were doing is akin to cheating.

We all know this game sucks and Blizzard's microtransaction system is predatory, but that really doesn't matter, because those are the rules of the game if you choose to play it, and players that are bypassing this can smoke "legitimate" players simply by virtue of buying their way to victory at a substantial discount. From Blizzard's perspective, not only does this bypass profit (their biggest motive), but it can also lead to people deciding to no longer play their pay-to-win BS mobile game since they're even further behind the 8-ball by being unable to compete with other players who are sourcing their in-game currency from websites that have, in may cases, literally broken the law. This is a completely reasonable response by Blizzard as far as I'm concerned. Exhibit A is right here:

One such player, a high-level Wizard named Shia, received a -2,491,025 Orb debt that would have cost over $35,000 to repay. In an interview with jtisallbusiness (the same guy who discovered they can't play PvP after spending $100,000 because the matchmaker couldn't find an equal-level opponent), Shia said that they're probably just going to quit rather than pay off the debt.

Good luck competing with that legitimately.
 
Getting premabanned would have been the nicest thing they could have done for these poor fucks. But this is a money grab. They know some people are actually going to buy their way out, so let's not call it "nice" because we know that's not what it is.

Ok, so what? That's on them. Some people also spend thousands of dollars on microtransactions, which is why they make games like this. That's a "don't hate the player, hate the game" scenario. If someone wants to pay me thousands of dollars for fake money in a video game, my response will be "here's the address the mail the cheque". Blizzard exists to make money. The only defense we have against this as consumers is to stop giving them our money and forcing them to change the business model. This model exists because people are willing to do that. That's on them, not Blizzard. If a sentient adult decides to buy out their account in a microtransaction plagued mobile game, we can't be mad at Blizzard for that. No different than the people who pre-ordered Battlefield 2042 despite the gongshows that were the previous Battlefield launches and are upset because the game still sucks. They gave them the incentive to do it, and they'll pre-order the next game because they never learn.
 
If someone wants to pay me thousands of dollars for fake money in a video game, my response will be "here's the address the mail the cheque".
It sounds like that's almost what they did. They had to have been paid at some point for those third-party funds they hate so much. Or they wouldn't have worked at all. Just because it's possible some of them were obtained illegitimately, doesn't give them the right to retract 100% of those funds, without investigation, much less BILL *everyone* 100%, again. If someone actually buys out, Bliz made their money twice. And let's be honest, how many of these whales with excessive negative balances aren't going to just start a new account and keep on paying.
 
Getting premabanned would have been the nicest thing they could have done for these poor fucks. But this is a money grab. They know some people are actually going to buy their way out, so let's not call it "nice" because we know that's not what it is.
The best thing about this is it looks like the affected users were put into debt rather than banning them. At least one person is going to have to make up the 2.5 million Eternal Orb debt before being able to use any again.
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It sounds like that's almost what they did. They had to have been paid at some point for those third-party funds they hate so much. Or they wouldn't have worked at all. Just because it's possible some of them were obtained illegitimately, doesn't give them the right to retract 100% of those funds, without investigation, much less BILL *everyone* 100%, again. If someone actually buys out, Bliz made their money twice. And let's be honest, how many of these whales with excessive negative balances aren't going to just start a new account and keep on paying.

So where I disagree with you here is as follows:

1) The article states that Blizzard knows the third party websites were doing this illegitimately. They were grey market at best, with reselling from less expensive areas being the most "innocent" thing they were doing, all the way up to buying using stolen credit card numbers, which is straight-up illegal (and Blizzard might not have been paid there if the victims were able to successfully dispute the charge). Lets be honest, if they're tech-savvy enough to hunt down websites that do this, they understand how they work.

2) I don't accept the idea that the people doing this were not aware of what they were doing. If you're buying something for a steep discount on a sketchy website, you know it's not legitimate, or you're naive.

3) Players getting a substantial boost in the game illegitimately alters the experience for the people who are playing by the rules in a negative way, meaning Blizzard may lose legitimate paying customers who are frustrated with how far they are falling behind and how they can't keep up with other players. That can negatively affect their bottom line.

4) Blizzard is actually giving people who blatantly engaged in questionable behaviour the chance to resume playing the game with their current characters instead of banning them outright, provided they pay Blizzard what their owed. This is more than they deserve, quite frankly. You have to remember as well that these are Blizzard's servers and you're playing by their rules, and therefore they absolutely have the right to police who can, and cannot, play their game on their servers, and it does give them the right to enforce their T's and C's.

If people want to create a new account and keep on playing, that's also fine. Blizzard isn't restricting their option, they're simply saying if you want to keep your current character, you have to pay for it. They're not stopping you from starting from scratch.
 
Getting premabanned would have been the nicest thing they could have done for these poor fucks. But this is a money grab. They know some people are actually going to buy their way out, so let's not call it "nice" because we know that's not what it is.

Po🙄ta🙄to. Pah🙄tah🙄to.

The same people who'd spend $35k to bring their account out of the red are the same people who'd spend $35k on a new account in permabanned.

However much they may wail over this, whales gonna whale.
 
I mean, I think spending real world currency on in game shit is profoundly stupid in general, but that said, they tried to beat the system and they paid the consequences. I don't have a problem with that.

This should be the way it is in all levels of society. Either dot every I and cross every T, or get pummeled. You try to look for loop holes or workarounds? You get pummeled.

I'd kind of like that.
i'm trying to understand the logic, for example you mean like buying memory from amazon seller because it's cheaper, instead off corsair website directly they should be able to limit the mhz because you didn't pay full retail for it?
I know this games business model is outrageous.

But seriously are we cheering gold sellers now ? ? ? Buy from gold sellers don't complain when you have your account deleted... which is what this is a deletion. They are actually being nice giving people the option to buy back in. In most online games when you are caught messing with gold sellers you just get the horns. Its long known for people playing online games selling gold will get you booted... buying gold will also get you booted in most cases. The best way to take care of gold selling as a developer is to BOOT everyone so other players understand its not worth saving a few bucks sending money to some Chinese gold farm.

The only real reaction gamers should be having to this game is to /uninstall and play something else. The greed level is well documented no one has any excuse for supporting such crap, buying things properly OR feeding creep gold sellers. Just don't play such obviously scammy games... play the less obvious scammy online games. lmao
so i don't play these types of games, but why does it matter if you buy gold/currency from another player? isn't there a big market for weapons and stuff that real money exchanges for in this game? and i know counter strike's another one that has a big weapon market
 
Sorta off topic, but I remember selling in-game currency for Anarchy Online on Ebay back in the day. It was a pretty good side hustle for a young guy, like a couple of hundred bucks a week or better. I only quit because I quit the game. I never got banned for it, either from Funcom or Ebay. Those kinds of things were a lot less regulated back then, just like the internet in general.
 
so i don't play these types of games, but why does it matter if you buy gold/currency from another player?
Usually it's not that they're buying from another player per se, but that someone in (say) the US or Europe is buying currency from a player an another part of the world, like India, where it costs less. Blizzard's position is that you're ripping them off of the difference between an price between INR and USD.
 
i'm trying to understand the logic, for example you mean like buying memory from amazon seller because it's cheaper, instead off corsair website directly they should be able to limit the mhz because you didn't pay full retail for it?

Whenever you think you are being clever, and think you have found a way to get more for less, you are probably breaking some sort of rule, and shouldn't be surprised when there are consequences.

Software and virtual assets are not the same as physical goods.

That said, I'd argue that arbitrage, is generally just a form of scalping, which is a "douche move" and probably should be illegal and enforced.
 
OTOH, people who weren't buying discount orbs probably aren't going to get PVP matched with Shia anyway.

Yes, although I don’t necessarily just mean PVP. It can be frustrating when you see everyone else has awesome crap you can’t seem to get access to.
 
Getting premabanned would have been the nicest thing they could have done for these poor fucks. But this is a money grab. They know some people are actually going to buy their way out, so let's not call it "nice" because we know that's not what it is.
I have played many MMOs over the years. Many a time have I heard some goof say come on I only bought $20 worth of X... I can't believe I got my $1000 account deleted over that.

Is it nice to give them a buy back in... no your right they may just cash in. IMO very few of those folks are going to pay that sort of money to get back in, if they could have they wouldn't have been dealing with potentially scammy third party gold sellers. What it does... is create a news story about the entire situation. Which means other idiots thinking it might be a good idea to use some shady gold seller, will think perhaps its not worth loosing my account over.

This has been going on for what 20 years now... game companies punish players for buying virtual items and currency from other players with $. Most of the time its a simple perma ban... sometimes its a months long time out. (Which other developers do because its proven giving gold buyers months long time outs better discourages others from gold buying)

IMO This is a smart way to correct the problem. To be honest I don't understand how players can even be upset. The proper reaction is HAHA ya that is what you get. If you find yourself playing any online game where progression requires INSANE amounts of your money and or time. Perhaps your playing a terrible game. Developers should be able to make money sure... but the second you feel they are being overly greedy vote with your wallet.
 
i'm trying to understand the logic, for example you mean like buying memory from amazon seller because it's cheaper, instead off corsair website directly they should be able to limit the mhz because you didn't pay full retail for it?

so i don't play these types of games, but why does it matter if you buy gold/currency from another player? isn't there a big market for weapons and stuff that real money exchanges for in this game? and i know counter strike's another one that has a big weapon market

Pretty simple its piracy.
Its not different then arguing buying black market windows keys is ok cause it activates and who does it hurt MS is huge.

Just because you dislike what a company is charging, you don't have a right to steal from them. Warezing photoshop because its expensive and Adobe are slimy greedy no nicks doesn't make it right.
 
i'm trying to understand the logic, for example you mean like buying memory from amazon seller because it's cheaper, instead off corsair website directly they should be able to limit the mhz because you didn't pay full retail for it?

so i don't play these types of games, but why does it matter if you buy gold/currency from another player? isn't there a big market for weapons and stuff that real money exchanges for in this game? and i know counter strike's another one that has a big weapon market
Because it's the behavior that begets players when that kind of activity is allowed. When real money gets involved it ruins the experience for everybody else. Final Fantasy XI was miserable early in its life because you had bots camping spawns and then selling the claim or drops to the highest bidder. With their scripts it makes it impossible for a normal player to spot and attack the target before the bot can. This is a common issue in any MMORPG, not just FFXI.
 
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